[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer AEW Dynamite averaged 685,000 viewers Wednesday night on TNT, down 16.4 percent from last week: the third-lowest viewership total the show has ever done. Meanwhile, NXT averaged 590,000 viewers on USA Network, down 11.8 percent. It was the fourth-lowest total for the show since moving to USA Network. The total combined audience of 1.275 million viewers is the lowest to watch on Wednesday since the Wednesday Night War began. The previous low was 1.339 million when both shows went against game seven of the 2019 World Series on October 30. Looking at the key 18-49 demo, AEW averaged a 0.25 rating last night, down 26.5 percent. That tied the December 18 episode for the lowest Dynamite has done in that demo. With news programming dominating the ratings, Dynamite ranked 37th on cable in that category Wednesday night. For the third straight week, NXT failed to crack the top 50 in the 18-49 rankings, finishing at 74th with a 0.15 rating. That's down 25 percent from last week and matched January 1 for the lowest number the show has done in the demo. Factoring out the news programming, AEW would have finished eighth on the night. That's still lower than Dynamite usually does, but is further proof of how much people were watching the news channels on Wednesday.

Originally Posted by Observer Sports Illustrated asked Brent Colborne, ESPN’s Senior Director of Programming, if WrestleMania could potentially air live on ESPN in the future: “It’s a great question. We’re always open to discussing a lot of different ideas with various leagues, but right now the focus for what we’re doing with WWE is on the short-term. We felt like this was a really good content opportunity for us to show these three encores, and a really good promotional opportunity for WWE to help utilize our reach and our brand to create more excitement for WrestleMania this upcoming weekend.”

Originally Posted by Observer Kushida will be in action on this week's episode of 205 Live. WWE has announced that Kushida vs. Danny Burch will air on 205 Live tomorrow night. Jack Gallagher vs. Tyler Breeze is also set for the episode. Three weeks ago, Kushida was part of the Team NXT vs. 205 Live originals 10-man elimination tag match on 205 Live. He was revealed as the final member of Team NXT on that show, replacing Lio Rush. Team NXT won the match after dissension between Gallagher and his teammates. Kushida and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott were the two members of Team NXT left standing at the end.

KUSHIDA's NXT run has been very disappointing soo far compared to what he was doing in NJPW.

Originally Posted by Observer MLW's event that was supposed to take place in Texas this May has been pushed back five months. It was announced today that MLW's tapings that were scheduled for the NYTEX Sports Centre in North Richland Hills, Texas on Saturday, May 2 have been rescheduled to Saturday, October 3. Tickets that had been purchased for the show will be honored on the new date. MLW wrote that league officials "are continually monitoring the on-going coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The status to delay additional events will be decided in the weeks ahead.

Originally Posted by Observer All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Champion Carnival tournament will not go on as scheduled. It was announced today that the tournament will not be taking place in April due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It was scheduled to start on April 6 at Korakuen Hall, with the finals taking place on May 5 at the same arena. The president of AJPW, Tsuyoki Fukuda, said in the press conference announcing the cancellation that he will "make every possible effort" to run the tournament this year. Before the cancellation, a number of changes were already being made due to the fast moving nature of the pandemic. Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lucas Steel, and Joel Redman were all previously announced for the tournament. However, they were pulled following travel restrictions imposed by the Japanese government.

Originally Posted by PWI Jim Cornette announced on his most recent podcast that Kevin Sullivan will be joining him on the Friday 4/8 episode of The Jim Cornette Experience. Sullivan will be sitting down and, for the first time, will be discussing his relationship with the late Nancy Benoit as well as why he declined to take part in Vice TV's Dark Side of the Ring documentary on the Benoit family tragedy. In the documentary, it was claimed that Sullivan had physically abused his ex-wife, something the documentary noted he completely denied while also declining the chance to be interviewed. The podcast will drop on all podcast platforms on 4/8.

Originally Posted by PWI FS1's broadcast of the 2020 WWE Royal Rumble event on Tuesday 3/28 garnered 421,000 viewers. As noted a few days ago, that event helped WWE Backstage that night reach 134,000 viewers, one of the best numbers for that series in some time.

Originally Posted by PWI Edward "Teddy Hart" Annis' court date on charges of strangulation resulting in wounding/bodily harm in Richmond, Virginia have been pushed back to Wednesday 6/10 at 2:15 PM according to court records. Hart was arrested on Thursday afternoon 3/26, his third arrest in six weeks in the State of Virginia. The victim in the case was named publicly as Manic, who Hart had been dating off and on for several months. Prior to Hart being arrested yesterday, Virginia-based independent wrestler Ace Montana posted a video on his Facebook page where he exits a house, telling someone (believed to be Manic) to lock the door behind him. After exiting the house, he confronts Hart, warning him that the police have been called and that "she would be pressing charges" while threatening Hart that he needed to leave. In the video, Hart denied ever touching Manic before heeding Montana's orders and leaving the immediate premises ... Manic has since come out publicly to state that she does not wish to file charges against Hart and that she feels the entire situation has been blown out of proportion. Under Virginia law, strangulation is considered a class six felony. Should Annis be convicted, he could be looking at 1-5 years imprisonment and a fine of $2,500.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Per ABC 6, Jacob Kasper, two-time All American at Duke has received a tryout from WWE and he plans to pursue it after the Coronavirus pandemic settles down. ESPN ran a story about Jacob in May of 2018. Gerald Brisco scouted and recruited Kasper and dubbed him as possibly the next John Cena.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc John Cena, the face of WWE for more than a decade, appeared on the latest episode of Corey Graves' After The Bell podcast where he discussed some of his favorite matches and his opinion on the state of WWE. He said the current era of programming needs one defining figure, but doesn't know if that figure can be produced. "It needs what I'm not sure it can produce, and that's...just the state of where everything is now, which is weird because it kind of always corrects itself so we're in a day and age where it needs a frontman or woman," Cena said. "It needs one, maybe two, definable characters to absolutely be the reason, and that's what will be able to define what the era is because it takes on those personality traits of its top star. Like I said it before I don't know if, all things considered, the crowd is so mixed, that if the company puts its faith behind an individual, the knee-jerk reaction of the audience, even if they liked the guy last week, is to say 'f--k you, you're not going to tell me who I like.' So the audience is also tipping the scales of this not being able to happen. Universal popularity will never happen because someone will see it and get on to it and be like, 'he seems to be getting popular, let's stop this right now,' or, 'she seems to be getting popular let's change this right now,' and I've seen it happen with guys who are really darlings of that underground crew make it, and as soon as they make it, the rug is pulled out from under them. "It's difficult because it's like a 'Super Friends', because the audience is so segmented, some people will embrace that underground dude. Some people will embrace the top person. Some people will embrace the midcard. Some people will embrace the cruiserweights, and then there's the split between like, 'I like SmackDown, I like RAW, I like NXT.' It's just really difficult to get one definable figure to stand at the front and be like, 'okay let's go.' I mean, I don't know, so I don't know. That's where the business is, and usually if it pushes too far in one way, the pendulum finds a way to come back, but I really don't know because the program is so socially active, and your social emotions are not what they are in the arena. I know that first hand, dude. When you're at the edge of your seat, and you're lost in a championship fight and something happens and you think maybe a title is going to switch and it doesn't, you stand and you catch yourself going, 'nah,' and you tweet like, 'that was BS,' or whatever. Your keyboard emotions aren't necessarily the same as watching it live."

TPWW Frontpage:

• AEW’s “Undisclosed Location” Was a Wrestling School in Georgia
• AEW World Title Match in Two Weeks + More Matches Announced
• Full Bracket Revealed for AEW TNT Championship Tournament